- Title
- Bright Minds, Big Rent: Gentrification and the Rising Returns to Skill
- Author(s)
- Lena Edlund Lena Edlund (Columbia University)
- Cecilia Machado Cecilia Machado (Getulio Vargas Foundation)
- Maria Micaela Sviatschi Maria Sviatschi (Princeton University)
- Abstract
- In 1980, housing prices in large US cities rose with distance from the city center. By 2010, that relationship had reversed. We propose that the inversion can be traced to more hours worked by the skilled. Scarce non-market time downgrades the importance of residential space and upgrades that of proximity to work, factors favoring the central-city location. Geo- coded census micro data covering the 27 largest US cities and the period 1980-2010 support our hypothesis: full-time skilled workers are more likely to locate in the city center and their growth can account for the observed price changes.
- Creation Date
- 2019-01
- Section URL ID
- Paper Number
- 2019-32
- URL
- https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w21729/w21729.pdf
- File Function
- Jel
- R21, R30
- Keyword(s)
- Gentrification, suburbanization, returns to skill, labor supply, location choice
- Suppress
- false
- Series
- 13